Happy Friday once again, Farm-ily!
Now that we're in our 7th week of Winter CSA, our hands and minds are truly working feverishly on Spring. There are seeds spread on the conference table, and germination chambers underway. Each day brings us a little victory, a nugget of planning come to fruition, like our new CSA pickup location at Greenheart Juicery in Aldie (details to come). One aspect of our operation that is always crucial to our success is the participation of our Farm-ily, both in spreading the word about CSA, and in volunteering your time and talents at the Farm.
We were so lucky last year to have amazing volunteers, both as CSA attendants in the Farm Stand, and helping us to pack and harvest here on the Farm itself. We'd love to have even more of you join us in 2020! We have openings for CSA attendants, the friendly folks who help you retrieve you shares and extras at the Farm Stand, on both Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings. We also have opportunities for pack shed assistants during the day on Tuesday and Friday. Pack shed assistants need to be able to comfortably lift 20+ lbs, and not mind a little dirt during the course of the shift. These volunteers will help wash and package the weeks' harvest for our other members. We're delighted to train new volunteers for either of these positions. For any of you that have a background and interest in horticulture, we are also looking for 1-2 skilled volunteers to assist with large harvests on Mondays and Thursdays. For all three of these roles, our ideal volunteers will be able to commit to 18 out of the 25 weeks of our CSA season in the same time slot. All volunteers completing 20+ hours of work at the Farm receive an employee discount of 15% on the following CSA season.
Want to spend more time on the Farm, but don't have regular availability? We have a spot for you, too! Throughout the season, we have several opportunities for what we like to call "bulk harvests". Some of our crops, like winter squash or potatoes, require little to no experience to harvest and are all ready in one fell swoop. Many hands make light work, even in the case of thousands of pounds of crops loaded onto our trailers in a single day. We'll be sending out emails and social media posts throughout the season, a few weeks in advance of these bulk harvests. You can expect to see chances to work alongside our crew pulling beets and carrots in June, watermelon in July, potatoes in August, and squash in September. Each event will be family friendly, and followed by an on-farm potluck dinner for everyone involved.
Speaking of dinner and good company, we also want to share you with you a new event for 2020 that we've dubbed it the Willowsford Village Challenge. As our membership reaches capacity this spring, we plan to check the roster against the maps for each Willowsford village and identify one street each from the Grange, the Grant, the Grove, and the Greens with the highest rate of CSA participation. We're throwing a party on the Farm with our crew for these four winning streets to celebrate local agriculture, environmental stewardship, and community! For our longstanding members, we hope this gives you a great reason to chat with your neighbors at the mailbox about the all the delicious food you're enjoying from the Farm.
If you have stories to share about what CSA means to you, and how it contributes to your family, please consider taking a moment and sending them to us at farm@willowsfordfarm.com (or just reply to this email). We're collecting anecdotes from our current members to use in future newsletters and social media. We could talk all day about why we grow and how much we love it, but we think new members want to hear from YOU about what it's like to be a stakeholder in our Farm-ily. Any quotes we use will earn you a $20 credit towards your 2020 CSA membership. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us any time!
Meal Plan #7
Delicious Entrees
Pork Brociole: A Sausage and Manchego Stuffed Tenderloin. Serve with a side of our heritage rose and gold Pinto potatoes from this week's share, roasted and topped with this 5-minute Romesco.
Give onions the chance to shine with a skillet French Onion Chicken.
Use your slow cooker for a fresh, spicy take on beef stew with this recipe for Sichuan Beef & Carrots.
An Italian Sausage and Pasta Soup filled with spinach and tomatoes.
Dress up a salad of winter greens with Ina Garten's Caramelized Shallots, or a homemade Shallot Vinaigrette, and some rich bleu or goat cheese. Serve with Marinated Pork Chops.
Vegetarian Inspiration:
A Beet Gratin full of greens and creamy cheese.
Kohlrabi Fritters... yum!
A Healthy Snack:
Baked Beet Chips or Pickled Daikon Radishes
Eat well and be well,
Ashley, Collin, John, Lex, Nate popping in for the week, and all of our furred and feathered Farm critters
